Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Needing a new computer....help please!
Okay, so my parents finally agreed to buy me a new computer in order to upgrade my 5 year old one, they're giving me $700 or so bucks for it.
I have basically no idea how to assemble/upgrade/put together PC's; my knowledge of PC-building is limited to putting memory in.
I went to this site, "cyberpower.com" (and their what I'm assuming is sister site ibuypower.com") and configured a pretty good computer (according to a few tech-savvy friends and people on this website)..but after reading some horror stories of people who had bought computers from these guys before I became a little hesitant.
I've been looking for an alternative to ibuypower or cyberpower without paying 400 dollars extra, but have been totally unsuccessful.
This is the computer I made, and the price I got for it.
| $675.00 (before all applicable rebates) |
CASE: ($10 off Mail-in Rebate) Sigma Gaming Orca Mid-Tower 400W Case CPU: AMD Athlon™ X2 5000+ Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology MOTHERBOARD: Asus M2N SLI NVIDIA nForce 560 SLI MCP Chipset DDR2/800 SATA RAID PCI-Express MBoard w/GbLAN, IEEE1394, USB2.0, &7.1Audio MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand) VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 16X PCI Express (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA) VIDEO CARD 2: NONE LCD Monitor: NONE HARD DRIVE: Single Hard Drive (320GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD) Data Hard Drive: NONE Optical Drive: (Special Price) LG 20X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR) Optical Drive 2: NONE SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
Are there any alternatives to these two websites, or am I just going to have to hope for the best?
|
Comments
CASE: ($10 off Mail-in Rebate) Sigma Gaming Orca Mid-Tower 400W Case
is a 400Watt case going to work ok? i was under the impression you would need more power for a video card. not sure though.
-I will subtlety invade your psyche-
The minimum needed for a card in that power range is 450watt. But then again it really depends on the rest of your system. Considering how few peripherals are attached, he might be able to get away with a 400watt supply.
No there aren't any PC builders that are as cheap as Cyberpower / IBuypower / or thier cheap brand. Tigersdirect used to offer PC Building if you assemble the parts. Not sure if they do anymore, but that would be cheaper. Unfortunetly at the price point you can gamble with CyberPower, or pay twice as much to get a proprietary unmodifiable computer from the likes of Dell. Chances are a screw up from CyberPower won't cost that much to repair.
Remember that you're going to need an operating system...I'm guessing by your cost and components that you didn't account for that, or that you already have an operating system on disc, because to add one on the builder generally costs around an extra 100 dollars or so.
Your argument is like a two legged dog with an eating disorder...weak and unbalanced.
Nope, that's including the OS.
I'm assuming that 420W is enough, because they don't even offer a 450watt case.
I would suggest you stay away from Cyberpower systems, i've had nothing but problems with the PC i bought from them. I bought it 5 years ago and since then i've upgraded all the hardware.
When i first got my PC it worked great for about 10 months, then my video card dies. I sent it back to them to fix the video card. Get it back and the video card is DOA, also the LED light on the front door is dead since something cut the wire. I send it back again and the video card is still DOA. My HDD was also jammed into the HDD bay sidewars and the brakets were broken. Finally they just mailed me a new video card and it worked fine after i installed it myself. They also installed a beeber that was ment to beep if i had a hardware crash and when i turn my PC on and off, never heard the thing beeb once.
They may of improved since then, but i dought it.
Unless your planing on useing 2 video cards dont need a nForce motherboard, they are for SLI. Its cheaper to just get a motherboard with a AMD northbridge chip. 2GB of ram is weak, can easily get 4GB of DD2 for less then $100. But unless your running a 64Bit OS dont need more then 3GB of ram.
Use this to caculate how many Watts you will need
http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp
I came up with only 334 watts, but i might of missed some stuff i dont know about.
PC would only cost you around $575 if you made it yourself.
I myself have a PC from Cyberpower. It's pretty decent for the most part, but my video card died in less than 2 months, though they replaced it pretty quickly. I personally recommend building it yourself. It's really not very difficult at all, and you would probably be able to build it for about at least $80 cheaper than you're looking at right now (though their price is still good).
Just look online for a guide or something if you have to. It can be a pain in the ass if you run into problems, but you feel great when it's over with.
Hmm, I don't think I know what goes with what and what goes where, ect..
I do have two questions though..
What do medium settings look like in AoC? (I wouldn't get anyone to answer this anyways, too much flaming and trolling in those forums)
Also, how would the game run with this setup;
AMD Athlon 64 X2 AM2 4400+ processor at 2.4 GHz, 2000MHz FSB, 512KB x 2 cache
Triple 120MM case fan and cooling system
500W power supply
MSI K9N SLI-F V2 AM2 nVidia nForce 570LT SLI w/ 2000MHz FSB motherboard
4gb Kingston
nVidia GeForce 8600 GT 256mb DDR2 @540MHz
Windows Vista Home Basic
Thanks.
If your not going to run 2 video cards you dont need a SLI motherboard, your just wasting money on something you wont use.
Unless your running a 64bit OS only need 3 GB of ram since a 32bit OS wont reconize anymore.
A 500 Watt Power supply is overkill for that hardware. A 400 Watt power supply would easily run it all.
And the GeForce 8800 GT is a faster card then the 9600 and 8600 GT.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130318
I changed the motherboard to a "MSI K9A2 Neo-F AMD 770 Phenom Spider Platform w/1 Gen 2 PCIE-16". Is that better?
I also downgraded to 2gb of ram and upgraded the card to a 9600 GT 512.
It's like 40 bucks more, is it better?
http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/evga_geforce_9600_gt_ssc/index.shtml
Shows the 8800 vs the 9600. The 8800 is a faster card then the 9600, but the 9600 is able to keep up. If your on a budget the 9600 is a good card.
If your going to use the "AMD Athlon 64 X2 AM2 4400+ processor at 2.4 GHz, 2000MHz FSB, 512KB x 2 cache" then that motherboard wont work. It only supports AMD Phenom, Athlon 64, and Athlon 64FX processors.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128052
hard to find a motherboard that takes a Athlon 64 X2 that isnt SLI or a micro motherboard under $100. If you ever plan to hook up 2 SLI video cards should just buy a SLI motherboard now to save you the time and money. Should talk to other people and get more input.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/
That website will be very helpful to you for finding the right hardware for you.
Okay, thanks a bunch..
One last question; Why are the SLI motherboards so bad for my set-up? Will it drain power or something? It's the only one I can find for this computer.